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A forum member provided a good point from this thread I started and I thought it’d be a good idea to post this in the C7 section as well. What is your guys take on this between these two C6 and C7s?
A forum member provided a good point from this thread I started and I thought it’d be a good idea to post this in the C7 section as well. What is your guys take on this between these two C6 and C7s?
The C7 interior is much improved over the C6. C6 seat support was horrible and the foam really degrades over time. Just way better materials, technology, and quality in the C7. I bought my 2013 GS (2LT) new and my 2019 GS (2LT) new, so those are my points of reference.
I will say that the C6 has better sight lines (ie no blindspots) vs the C7. Even with the tighter interior, the C7 feels bigger/heavier to me.
C7 has more toys and convenience items like the back-up camera, Apple Car Play and Android Auto, etc.
None the less, I really enjoyed my C6 GS. Very comfortable on the street and a heck of a car on the track.
As a new Corvette owner let me put it this way: I never considered getting a C6 due to its interior - way too GM parts bin in there. My father has owned a few GM vehicles I always felt their interiors were just terrible. With the C7 GM stepped up and address this weakness, thus the interior is now comparable to my brother's Porsche (his words not mine). In my 3LT there are lots of nice, high end interior materials with decent fit and excellent finish: carbon fiber, micro suede, leather, aluminum, everything feels and looks good. My car still has some squeaks and rattles but overall its decent. Exterior fit and finish is still a step behind, for example the body lines and panel gaps on my wife's Infiniti Q60 are superior to my C7.
There's too many variables why some like either the C6 or C7 over the other.
The C6 is still a great car in it's own right, and I can see why some still prefer the C6.
I look at it this way, the C7 is a 10 year jump in Tech, Build Quality, Performance/Handling, and Refinement over the last C6 built.
Especially the Seats if I had to pick only one thing.
I put 25,000 mile on my C6 without one problem.
But had to remove and replace the Driver seat Foam after 8,000 miles because it literally fell apart.
And as comfortable as those seats may be, they are built like a lawn chair, no exaggeration.
To me the complete driving experience with the C7 is why I would not go back to a C6.
Just my opinion for what it's worth
There was only one thing wrong with the 08 interior and that was the seats. They were intended to sit large butts and to make it easier to get in and out of the car. The seat backs provided little to no lateral support so when even moderately cornering the upper body moved back and forth which left the driver holding onto the steering wheel to keep themselves in place. Very similar to driving a sedan or a pick up truck of almost any era. However, the car was comfortable to ride in and take long trips. If the seats had the inflatable side bolsters and lumbar supports the side bolsters could be inflated to the max to provide some lateral support. I really believe the seat issue was a hangover from all of the seat complaints GM received on the early C4s. Those bucket seats were great. The occupants butt was sunk down in the seat so it didn't move around and the upper body was held in place by nice bolsters. You didn't even need the sport seat option to be held in place. The later C4 seating went down hill from there as GM removed lateral support in an attempt to provide for large butts. This definitely carried over into the C5 seats and they finally reacted to all of the magazine and enthusiast complaints in 2012 by modifying the C6 seats in a failed attempt to improve lateral support.
As for the quality of the interior I can remember when I had my 08 giving a student a ride around Watkins Glen. He had a brand new BMW M3 and when he got in my car the first thing he said, This interior is great, I have been hearing all sorts of comments about the poor Corvette interior but this is really nice. To be fair I had race seats installed in the car so he didn't get to compare the BMW seats to the Vette seats but the interior color, fit, finish and style impressed him.
With the C7 the interior was modernized and made sexy but that is just a difference in the time frame Vs any real benefit to the driver. The seats however were vastly improved, not as tight as the early C4 seats but much better. You can take the car on a track, toss it into a corner and if the seat belt is properly cinched and tightened to the max so you are held in the seat the seat will provide sufficient lateral support that you don't need to use the steering wheel to keep your body in place. The result is we have more large butt complaints as people can't fit between the two small raised bolsters on the seat bottom. This time I hope GM doesn't listen to them.
Overall, the C7 is better, the interior feels closer, warmer and more comfortable. There are a couple of ****ly issues with how the engineers decided to display certain info on the Instrument Panel (Z06 has no coolant temperature gauge) and the only display on my car that shows coolant temp is the Touring Mode display. With the NAV system they chose not to display the local speed limit on the Nav screen but on some Info screen on the Instrument panel that you have to hunt around to find. One thing that would help is adding a selection keyboard like the C5 and C6 had. There are too many layers to the little steering wheel entry point on the C7. Too much going left, down, right and pushing enter. The C5 and C6 made it easy to see trip miles info with the push of one button that was in easy reach on the IP. Now I have to push three buttons on the steering wheel while watching the DIC to go from a Tour display to a trip miles display.
The C6 HUD was great, the C7 HUD is even better with a great shift indicator that shows progress to the shift point with a set of lights across the top that get closer together that change color and start to flash when the shift point is reached. Great for keeping your eyes on the road and watching where you are going while providing a reliable shift indicator.
I like the c7 interior over the c5 and c6 & hated the c4 that is my take on it. Robert
Different strokes - C4s had much better seats than C5 of C6 - C7 comes close to getting it right but the C4 seats held you exactly where you should be: in place, in the seat. I actually liked the C4 interiors enough that I four of them and accumulated more than 500,000 miles in them.....
I was told that the 2 biggest knocks on Corvette (from the C6 era) was the interior and the seats.
That was addressed with the C7. Seats are now made by Lear, which makes seats for Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini. The rest of the interior is leather! I'd say that's a step up, for sure.
The C7 interior is much improved over the C6. C6 seat support was horrible and the foam really degrades over time. Just way better materials, technology, and quality in the C7. I bought my 2013 GS (2LT) new and my 2019 GS (2LT) new, so those are my points of reference.
I will say that the C6 has better sight lines (ie no blindspots) vs the C7. Even with the tighter interior, the C7 feels bigger/heavier to me.
C7 has more toys and convenience items like the back-up camera, Apple Car Play and Android Auto, etc.
None the less, I really enjoyed my C6 GS. Very comfortable on the street and a heck of a car on the track.
Interesting take, I was under the impression that they greatly improved the 2012 and up GS seats. I've been reading though that they promote way too much looseness when driving spirited and don't hug the driver very well.
There's too many variables why some like either the C6 or C7 over the other.
The C6 is still a great car in it's own right, and I can see why some still prefer the C6.
I look at it this way, the C7 is a 10 year jump in Tech, Build Quality, Performance/Handling, and Refinement over the last C6 built.
Especially the Seats if I had to pick only one thing.
I put 25,000 mile on my C6 without one problem.
But had to remove and replace the Driver seat Foam after 8,000 miles because it literally fell apart.
And as comfortable as those seats may be, they are built like a lawn chair, no exaggeration.
To me the complete driving experience with the C7 is why I would not go back to a C6.
Just my opinion for what it's worth
Thank you for the honest and unbiased feedback. I'm curious, were the seats in the C6 the main reason you didn't feel the perfect overall driving experience?
Interesting take, I was under the impression that they greatly improved the 2012 and up GS seats. I've been reading though that they promote way too much looseness when driving spirited and don't hug the driver very well.
Regardless of year, C6 seats are abysmal on the track. After a track day, my left knee would be sore from pushing against the door panel to hold myself in place. Had I not sold, I was seriously shopping for a race seat.
I had a 2006 Z06 and now a 2017 Z06. The C6 isn't even close. It's boring and cheap feeling compared to my C7. Another issue I had with the C6 center console is that it got so freakin hot. I tried putting insulation when installing a MGW shifter and it was still so hot that you could feel it on your right leg. It actually got so hot that I posted a picture here about 8 yrs ago where some coins I left in the cup holder melted into the cup holder and left a perfect imprint of George Washington.
my c4 seats were awesome, probably best thing about that car. c5 /c6 seats not so much, c7 seats are pretty good. interior build quality has gone up every gen. i do like my c7 interior the best of all the vettes i have owned. i have had at least 1 of every gen. sit in a first gen vette if you want something to bitch about!!!
Since I don’t track my car I much preferred the seats in my base C6 over the seats in my C7. I have never been able to get comfortable in them even after 15k miles of driving it the last 8 months. They feel too narrow to me. And I am average size at 6’ 190.
All in all I preferred the simplicity of the C6 cockpit and interior over the C7. I guess I am an outlier.
As a new Corvette owner let me put it this way: I never considered getting a C6 due to its interior - way too GM parts bin in there. My father has owned a few GM vehicles I always felt their interiors were just terrible. With the C7 GM stepped up and address this weakness, thus the interior is now comparable to my brother's Porsche (his words not mine). In my 3LT there are lots of nice, high end interior materials with decent fit and excellent finish: carbon fiber, micro suede, leather, aluminum, everything feels and looks good. My car still has some squeaks and rattles but overall its decent. Exterior fit and finish is still a step behind, for example the body lines and panel gaps on my wife's Infiniti Q60 are superior to my C7.
I agree. For some reason, the C6 design never grabbed me. To the point that I chose a new C5 over a new C6 in the late summer of 2004. I literally had the dealership salesman park my C5 next to a C6 so that I could do a side-by-side comparison. Plus the dealer incentives and priced-to-move C5 were substantial compared to the over MSRP cost of the then new C6 model.
Although I grew to like the C6 design after the Z06 and Grand Sport wide body versions arrived, I never got past the design of the C6 interior. Especially the re-used Malibu steering wheel and the passenger dash. I had always thought the C5 interior design with the passenger dash grab handle was better looking and a tip of the cap to the C1 in terms of design.
The first time I saw the C7 interior, it reminded me of the C4 interior but with improved fit, finish and electronics. However, after taking delivery of my 2019 Z06 and getting some butt time in the car, I realize there are many similar stylistic cues to the C5. Mostly the AC vents and center console with the relocated grab handle.
The C7 interior is a vast improvement over the plastic feel of the C5 interior and definitely a step forward for GM. Hopefully the C8 will improve on the C7 as well.
I had a 2006 Z06 and now a 2017 Z06. The C6 isn't even close. It's boring and cheap feeling compared to my C7. Another issue I had with the C6 center console is that it got so freakin hot. I tried putting insulation when installing a MGW shifter and it was still so hot that you could feel it on your right leg. It actually got so hot that I posted a picture here about 8 yrs ago where some coins I left in the cup holder melted into the cup holder and left a perfect imprint of George Washington.
Did you have any mods done to the C6? Because base vs base I'd hands down go with a C7 Z06 vs. the base C6 Z06.. I was thinking about a base C6 GS though with a supercharger and I can imagine that would be boatloads of fun too. At that point I'd have a little more power than a base C7 Z06, but I'd wonder if the interior would have me feeling like I'm lacking something?
Thank you for the honest and unbiased feedback. I'm curious, were the seats in the C6 the main reason you didn't feel the perfect overall driving experience?
No the seats were just something if I had to pick one thing.
Overall, I really enjoyed the C6 for, they're a great car, but time marches on and so do improvements in engineering design.
I bought my C6 new and had it for 7 years before trading it in for the C7.
I wasn't half way home after I picked up the C7 and the C6 was a distant memory.
The C7 is simply on a Completely different level in every aspect .... much more Solid and Refined.
03-12-2019, 12:02 AM
Interiors? Are they that bad? (Continued thread)
